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Radford University Doctorate in Physical Therapy Program Receives First Endowed Scholarship

The Friendship Retirement Community Doctorate of Physical Therapy Endowed Scholarship, in the amount of $30,000, is the first endowed scholarship in Radford University’s new DPT program.

“Friendship Retirement Community, the largest of its type in the state for inpatient care, will provide RU physical therapy students with a variety and diversity of patients and types of patient care in the area of physical therapy that would be difficult, at best, to find at other programs,” said RU DNP Program Chair Ed Swanson.

Friendship Retirement Community established the first endowed scholarship for RU’s Doctorate in Physical Therapy program. From left to right: Waldron College Dean Raymond Linville, Friendship’s Director of Rehabilitation Services Mandy Church, Friendship Retirement Community President and CEO Russ Barksdale, and RU DNP Program Director Ed Swanson.

Friendship Retirement Community, based in Roanoke, is one site RU students will be placed when their clinical education begins. The facility has an average of 147 monthly admissions with the majority of short-term rehabilitation admissions being 20 days. “Pain management is an acute rehabilitation service,” said Russ Barksdale, president and CEO of Friendship Retirement Community. “We are looking forward to this relationship with Radford University.”

Friendship’s Director of Rehabilitation Services Mandy Church says the scholarship and the partnership with RU is a step in the right direction. “There is an area shortage of physical therapists. There are many of us grateful for RU’s DPT program,” she said. “This will be a good partnership as long as we put our patients first.”

The DPT program will be based on the campus of Roanoke’s Jefferson College of Health Sciences. Students will begin training in the summer of 2011. The program is one of three RU graduate programs in clinical healthcare. The charter class of the Doctorate in Nursing Practice (DNP) began their studies this fall. Students in the Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) program enrolled in fall 2009.